School Bus Cameras Detect Bad Motorist Behavior

Few things make me more angry than watching a motorist pass
a school bus despite its flashing red lights, swing out stop sign, and children
beginning to load or unload.

A few years ago as one of my district’s school buses stopped
to pick up kids at a children’s residential center when a car swerved around
the bus into the center’s parking lot.
It was the director of the center.
The bus driver called the transportation director, who called the
police. The director’s response? “I was in a hurry.”

At least in this case no one was injured, but no job is
worth risking the life of a child.

Now in an attempt to cut down on such violations, some
school districts are equipping their buses with cameras not only inside the
bus to detect student misbehavior, but also outside the bus to identify
motorist misbehavior. Like red light
cameras, school bus mounted cameras snap pictures of motorists who fail to stop
for the bus when its red lights are flashing.
The pictures are then transmitted to the police, who issue
citations. Violations tend to be
expensive, ranging in some areas from $300 to $1000.

All of this is just fine with me, with the exception of one
little wrinkle: The cameras are
installed by a company called American Traffic Solutions, and the company
receives 75% of the revenue generated from these traffic citations. The financial results have been,
unfortunately, pretty lucrative for all concerned. In Cobb County, Georgia, for example, from
last November through January, citations resulted in about $133,000 in
revenue. The company got about $100,00
of that money, the rest going to the county and school district.

So far the response from motorists has been muted compared
with the negative
response many have to red light cameras. The set-up is the same, with the
camera companies sharing in the revenue generated from citations (unless
prohibited locally by law). According to
industry data, the use of red-light cameras has
burgeoned over the past few
years from 155 contracts in 2005 to nearly 700 last year. Motorists complain that camera companies have
calibrated traffic lights to shorten the yellow in order to catch more
motorists; the companies retort that the length of the lights is not their
responsibility.

John Bowman, of the National
Motorists Association, which opposes traffic cameras, believes that people
aren’t complaining about school bus cameras because “everyone wants children to
be safe.” Still, he says, instead of
cameras, schools should be “looking at the training and support we give out
school bus drivers.”

School bus drivers are licensed and well trained, and in
many states are required to have additional training throughout the school
year. But no school bus driver, however
well trained, can keep a thoughtless motorist from swerving around a stopped
school bus. Frankly, I think sharing the
citation fines with the company that puts the cameras on the bus or on the red
light can encourage unscrupulous behavior on the part of the company, but that
behavior pales in comparison to the risk of carelessly injuring a child getting
on or off a school bus.

When you do business, you have to be open-minded and explore more for you to succeed.